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Darkwood Outpost
Darkwood Outpost was the only formalized gathering hub for hunters and merchants in the Wilderness in the Age of Overgrowth . It was founded by three legendary hunters, who went on to start the three lodges. Akadia Swanbrook, a swift and exact Aarakocran ranger of the northern mountains founded the Talon Lodge. The illusive elven night stalker known only as "Fern" began the Trace Lodge. Brux Perry, a goliath shifter of immense power, started the Tusk Lodge. The Outpost: Then and Now Ten years after the events of Fae's Rest (Campaign B), the Outpost has changed significantly. Fae's Rest Outpost Configuration: * There are two very large gates into the city (northwest and southeast), and it is enclosed around by a wall of truly massive trunks of Darkwood Cedars plunged into the ground and sharpened to a point. * The Northern Vein River runs through the city, southwest to northeast, and is crossed in the opposite direction by the main road. * Outside of the city, the main road quickly splits into many small trails, some of which lead to villages or homesteads. Others lead to sources of fresh water, hunting grounds, or just end abruptly amid the underbrush. * The Outpost is somewhat lit for an hour at midday, but at all other times lamps must be lit to enable work, and braziers may be seen roaring around the clock throughout the city. * The Three Lodges (Tusk, Talon, Trace) still work together and share contracts, though the Talon has been pulling away for many years. They rarely share work with the other two lodges, and almost totally handle business to the north, in the mountains. They grow increasingly territorial and suspicious of non-hunters. The Trace has only begun in secret to establish a relationship with the Guild of Mages in Brighthold. The Lodges provide the Outpost and villages with food and protection--they are a form of stable government for the Western Darkwood area, and have a good relationship with the Limbs of Canix the Silver (his Dragonborns and Drakes which police his territory). ** The Trace Lodge consists of three rounded, graceful buildings of elven build united by a central courtyard. ** The Tusk Lodge is a great hall hung outside with their most impressive trophies. ** The Talon Lodge is a slender tower which reaches, somehow, to the tree tops of the Darkwood, from which the Aarakocra launch their missions. The area around its top is cleared away of branches, allowing light to penetrate the Outpost at midday. * The Bazaar is the largest trading hub in the wilderness, with hundreds of stalls providing nearly any goods and services that might come to the imagination (yes, especially those), though without much access to exotic materials found outside of the wilderness. Any items which take much processing to create are rare here. It includes pubs, smiths, inns, and anything else you might look for in a proper town, but nearly all of its structures are tents or otherwise impermanent, though some can be quite elaborate. * The Tower is an impressive wooden structure which houses occasional meetings of the Lodge leadership and representatives from the other factions in the Outpost. It was the building around which all of the others were constructed. * The Centaur quarter and the Minotaur quarter were established long ago by tribes of each group, after cultural differences between them and the other races caused too much tension when all were camping and trading together. Centaurs and minotaurs may roam the city freely, but for their own sake they tend to spend most of their time in the quarter. Other such races, like lizardfolk, have begun making their own similar arrangements. Canix's general preference for humans and elves is sometimes held responsible for a growing racial tension in the Darkwood, but it would be difficult to point to any examples of his direct influence in the Outpost. * The city counsel is composed of the leaders of each lodge, two merchant representatives from the Bazaar, and one representative each from the centaurs and minotaurs. A dragonborn of Canix may attend but not vote. In the Hunter's Gambit Timeline (Campaign A) ten years later: * The Talon Lodge is abandoned. After several escalating disputes with the other two lodges, the Aarakocra have removed to the northern mountains and hold absolute territorial control over hunting there. * In the ensuing power vacuum, the Trace and Tusk have had to contend with the ambitions of the Centaur Cohort. Counsel meetings have become heated, as the Trace and Tusk try to maintain their old dominance over affairs in the city. * Druids are gathering in the city in large numbers to consult each other and share wisdom. The recent reincarnation of the Archfey has made fae influence in the region stronger yet more unpredictable. Dryads may be seen walking the bazaar or Naiads playing in the river, phasing into and out of existence. This effect is strongest just outside of the southeast gate, around the tallest trees the Darkwood has to offer, which have been hallowed since time immemorial and are not built upon, hunted in, or harvested from.